Construction- of driving-shafts for mills



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES MASSEY, OF' THOMASVILLE, GEORGIA.

CONSTRUCTION 0F DRIVING-SHAFTS FOR MILLS, COTTON-GINS, &C.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 24,475, dated June 21, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES MAssEY, of Thomasville, in the county of Thomas and State of Georgia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manner of Hanging the Driving-Shaft for Operating Gearing of Mills, Gins, &c.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

In the drawings F igurel, is a side elevation. Fig. 2, is a plan view.

The nature of my invention consists in the manner of suspending the king post or driving shaft, and in the manner of attaching the gearing' to it, as herein set forth and described.

To enable others skilled in the art `to make and use my invention I will describe its construction and operation.

In Fig. l, A is the frame of the gin-house, B, its floor, C, the driving shaft. D, the driving wheel, E, E the frame for supporting the friction rollers around the driving shaft, and to support the shaft of the gear wheels. F, the upright frame to which is suspended driving shaft. G, the inclosure around the lower end of the frame to prevent the cotton from falling into the opening through which said shaft passes. H, the friction rollers. a, the top cross-tie on which the plates rest, and through which the gudgeon on the end of the post or shaft passes. This gudgeon may have a nut on the end with a screw or a key may pass through it to hang the post on. Between plates .7) and Z1 are placed anti-friction balls c. I, the shaft on which are placed the gear wheels K, and K, and also spur-gear wheel d. e, the bearings of the horizontal shaft I.

L, a spur-gear wheel attached to the sha-ft of the saw cylinder. M, a larger gear wheel on the other end of same shaft working into spur-gear wheel on t-he end of shaft of brush cylinder. N, the boX surrounding the gin-cylinder. 0, the post of the frame supporting the cylinder. 0 crosstie of said frame.

In Fig. 2 like letters designate like parts.

N is the spur-gear wheel on the end of brush-cylinder shaft P.

In the operation of my invention it will be seen that I avoid the great difficulty heretofore existing in driving shafts when set on a fixed bearing. Take for illustration gin-houses: hitherto they have had the driving shaft stationary to the ground, and

as the floor sinks or rises by the weight of cotton on it the gear wheel which works into the driving wheel will rise up and thus become disengaged, or it will descend and bind and thus create much unnecessary friction. All this I avoid by my invention; for, as the driving shaft is hung to the floor, and the driving wheel is on the same shaft, and the horizontal shaft to which the gearing is attached are all hung to the fioor, so it follows, that as the floor risesl or descends so will the gearing, and will preserve the relative positions of its several parts at all times, working equally well whether the quantity of cotton on the floor be much or little.

It will be seen that I dispense with the use of bands, for, if they be loose enough to run the gin easily they will slip and waste much power, or, if strained so tightly as to prevent slipping more power will be required than would otherwise be necessary. By using gear wheels I avoid the above diiiculties, and am enabled to run the same amount of gins with less power than when bands are used.A By arranging two wheels K and K on the horizontal shaft I can operate two sets of gins, at the same time, together with two sets of brush cylinders. When I wish to operate a second set of gins and brushes, I have only to place them between the wheel K and the frame of the post, where, in a large gin house there is a plenty of room to run them; by this arrangement I can do much more ginning with the same power than has been heretofore.

My invention is alike applicable to any mill operating by gearing from a driving shaft.

Having thus fully described the construction and operation of my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

Suspending the driving shaft C in the manner described, to allow it to rise or fall with the floor to which it is attached operating substantially in the manner set forth and for the purposes described.

JAMES MASSEY.

Witnesses:

T. G. CLAYTON, HENRY JOHNSON. 

